Seschseschet (King's Mother)

Seschseschet (Queen Mother) in hieroglyphics
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Queen Seschseschet (also Sescheschet ) was the mother of Pharaoh Teti II , the founder and first Pharaoh of the 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom . According to Hartwig Altenmüller , she was married to a Schepsipuptah . As another son from this marriage he suspects a Mehu . Seschseschets son Teti owed her that he was able to win the throne by reconciling two warring factions within the royal family. With the transition to the new dynasty there was no break in the genealogical line or in the place of the seat of government of the predecessor. However, there were significant cultural achievements in the 6th Dynasty, which justify a differentiation from the previous dynasties.

tomb

On November 8, 2008, Zahi Hawass , then General Secretary of the Egyptian Antiquities Administration , expressed the view that Seschseschet had been buried in a newly discovered 4,300 year old, 5 meter high pyramid in Saqqara . So far there is no archaeological evidence for this. Hawass announced that this pyramid is one of the best-preserved known minor pyramids. The tomb increases the number of pyramids discovered in Egypt to date to 118. The pyramid that was found is located near two other pyramids, which are believed to belong to the two wives of Teti II , Iput I and Chuit .

At the end of November 2008, the archaeologists began to penetrate inside the pyramid. In January 2009 the first details about the burial chamber became known. This seems to have been partially looted by grave robbers, but a sarcophagus was discovered that still contained the remains of a burial. Skull, leg and pelvic bones were found in it, some of which were still bandaged, and the excavators also found golden finger sleeves and some vessels. Due to the lack of written evidence, it cannot yet be clearly confirmed that this is the burial of Queen Seschseschet.

Evidence from later times

800 years after her death, in the 16th century BC BC, the Egyptians' memory of Seschseschet does not seem to have been completely extinguished, because at this time (the early 18th dynasty ) their name is mentioned in the medical papyrus Ebers . The queen's name appears here in the short form Sesch and she is referred to as the mother of Teti. The papyrus lists a prescription for hair loss at the appropriate place (Eb. 468; 66.15–66.18) and names Seschseschet as its supposed author.

literature

Hartwig Altenmüller : Comments on the establishment of the 6th dynasty . In: Festschrift Jürgen von Beckerath, Hildesheimer Egyptological contributions, Volume 30, Hildesheim 1990, pp. 1–20 ( online )
Michel Baud : Famille royale et pouvoir sous l'Ancien Empire égyptien. Tome 2 (= Bibliothèque d'Étude. Volume 126/2). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1999, ISBN 2-7247-0250-6 , pp. 562-563 ( PDF; 16.7 MB ).
Aidan Dodson , Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt . The American University in Cairo Press, London 2004, pp. 70-78, ISBN 977-424-878-3
SCA press release: Pyramid of queens discovered in Saqqara . In: Sokar, No. 18, 2009, pp. 24–25 [1]

Individual evidence

^ Queen's Pyramid Discovered at Saqqara
↑ Reuters report on the mummy find (English)
↑ Medizin-papyri.de - Papyrus Ebers, Column LXVI ( Memento from February 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

personal data
SURNAME	Seschseschet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Sesch, Schesch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Queen of the ancient Egyptian 6th Dynasty
DATE OF BIRTH	25th century BC BC or 24th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	24th century BC BC or 23rd century BC Chr.

[1] Queen's Pyramid Discovered at Saqqara

[2] Reuters report on the mummy find (English)

[3] Medizin-papyri.de - Papyrus Ebers, Column LXVI ( Memento from February 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )